13 COVERS: Supergirl’s Fashion Through the Years

As a kid, one of my favorite features was when readers would send in their ideas for a new costume for Robin. (You can click here to read all about it. Really, go ahead, you’ll love it!)

What I didn’t realize at the time was that Supergirl was also a fashion plate — only she used to change outfits every issue or so. In my mind, she perpetually looked like she did as a Mego figure:

eBay

Anyway, Supergirl’s ever-changing wardrobe was a Thing and DC Comics has decided to have some fun with it. Starting with this month’s issue, out 2/14, Stanley “Artgerm” Lau is producing a series of variant covers that pay tribute to those often off-the-wall designs, beginning with that classic Bronze Age outfit:

But why should we let Artgerm have all the fun?

Here, then, are 13 COVERS celebrating Supergirl’s closet. Keep in mind, she actually had more versions than you see here — and a lot of these saw slight alterations from issue to issue, with variations in footwear, gloves, and so forth. (Click here for a cool, fairly comprehensive rundown I found. By the way, I’m choosing to ignore the versions of Supergirl that appeared before Kara arrived.)

So settle in, channel your inner Tim Gunn and dig these:

The original. Curt Swan pencils, Al Plastino inks.

Mike Sekowsky pencils, Dick Giordano inks

Giordano

Bob Oksner

John Romita Sr. (!) and Jose Marzan Jr.

Oksner

Gary Frank pencils, Cam Smith inks.

Sekowsky and Giordano

Ed Barreto pencils, Oksner inks.

Oksner and Giordano

Mahmud Asrar

Sekowsky and Giordano

Amy Reeder pencils, Richard Friend inks.

Adam Hughes

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Yeah, there are 14 covers there. I make the rules, I break the rules. Cover images and credits from the fashionable Grand Comics Database.

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2 Comments

The first costume change (which is displayed in Adventure #399) on your site took place in Adventure #397. After Supergirl looses a battle with Zond, she enlists the help of Diana Prince, The New Wonder Woman who contacts Morgana LeFay (whom Diana had recently battled). Since Supergirl’s costume was ripped up, Diana provides Supergirl with her 1st new costume. Mike Sekowsky was working on both Adventure and Wonder Woman at the time however, some readers took Sekowsky to task for coming up with the convenience of having Diana provide Supergirl with a costume that just happened to be in Diana’s boutique. I think the Mike Sekowsky era on Adventure Comics helped make the Supergirl character more mature, independent & not tied to Superman’s shadow. Great memories! Great post!

Apart from the original idea that Superman’s costume was supposed to be indestructible because Ma Kent wove it out the the unraveled fibers of the Kryptonian blanket that the baby Kal-El was swaddled in when he arrived on Earth, Mike Sekowski had a good idea there. Why SHOULD Kara Zor-El wear the same outfit every day? Wouldn’t she want to be fashionable like any other young girl and have a variety of clothes to pick from? She doesn’t wear a mask, and there are few people with Kryptonian superpowers on Earth (just two, really), so it’s not like she’s in any danger of people not recognizing who she is, as long as she wears the S-shield emblem of the house of El and the traditional blue & red colors of her cousin.

Marvel did something similar with Janet Van Dyne (the Wasp) in issues of The Avengers years later for a short while — every issue she seemed to be wearing a different costume, and the same deal applied. She didn’t wear a mask at the time, but it’s not like she was at any risk of being confused with some OTHER tiny woman with insect wings flitting around.